Workflow Editor

Workflows had a huge UX problem when we first started looking at them. The editable area was (on smaller screens) less than 1 inch across making is unusable. Additionally, the organization of the files in the workflow were nearly impossible to manage. I provided the original design and architecture and then handed it off to Yuyan Duan. She took the project with gusto and brought it all the way through development. Reviews have been very positive. Yuyan crushed it!

The project was broken down into 8 mini-milestones. This helped the team organize. Yuyan designed every stage and I provided review and architectural help.

Original UI – Notice the small editing space
Milestones are good tools to break down a large project
Dual File editng and a wide screen helped developers in their task

After deploying on the original UI, we made a new Crystal version to port the system over.

Workflow inline (Crystal version)
Dual editor without the modal – left tree collapsible

In hindsight, I think this entire project was a mistake. We should have focused on a plugin for VS Code. The data engineer persona would prefer to work in a Github environment where you can merge, diff, and normally edit code. With that said, it still was a major improvement over the original.